Local sequester cuts will hurt, but how much?

Friday

Mar 1, 2013 at 3:00 AM

Local nonprofits, schools and county departments that rely on federal funding say the specific impacts of across-the-board budget cuts triggered by today’s “sequestration” deadline are mostly unknown, and likely won’t be seen for weeks or months to come.

By Nathaniel AxtellTimes-News Staff Writer

Local nonprofits, schools and county departments that rely on federal funding say the specific impacts of across-the-board budget cuts triggered by today’s “sequestration” deadline are mostly unknown, and likely won’t be seen for weeks or months to come.Only one thing seems certain: Any resulting cuts are likely to affect those already hit by the recession and earlier belt-tightening, among them seniors, at-risk students, national parks and perhaps the long-term unemployed and low-income families receiving food assistance.Starting today, the failure of Congress to avert $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts will reduce funding for almost every federal program, including the Department of Defense. The White House says Army and Air Force operations in the state will lose $141 million and 22,000 civilian DOD employees will be furloughed. “These cuts will be harmful for our state, but it is my hope that we can come together, Democrats and Republicans, on a long-term deficit reduction plan before the most severe impacts of sequestration are felt in North Carolina,” Sen. Kay Hagan said, following two failed attempts to forge a budget deal Thursday.While $600 million in cuts are expected to the Federal Aviation Administration, Asheville Regional Airport has apparently dodged a bullet. Marketing Director Tina Kinsey said “our understanding is Asheville Regional Airport is not going to see any effects from sequestration.”County schools to lose 9-10% According to the White House, North Carolina will lose about $2.4 million in funding for primary and secondary education this year alone, putting about 350 teachers and aides at risk, plus another $16.8 million in funds for educating children with disabilities.Because federal funding for schools arrives in October and July, the impact of cuts won’t trickle down to the Henderson County Public Schools system until next fiscal year, which starts July 1, said Eric Moore, a fiscal analyst with the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. How deep the cuts will go is still up in the air.“The really conservative figures have said 8 percent (per year) and the really outrageous figures have said, like 12 percent,” Moore said.County schools received about $10.8 million in federal funding through state conduits this fiscal year, said Finance Director Kerry Shannon. During a conference call with NCDPI Finance Director Phillip Price, Shannon was told to expect a cut of 9 to 10 percent due to sequestration.However, when a one-time allocation of federal “Race to the Top” funds is removed, Shannon said the county is closer to losing between $873,000 and $970,000 next fiscal year. More than a third of the federal funds the county gets, roughly $3.8 million, are Title 1 funds that help at-risk, disadvantaged students.“We wouldn’t be able to dip into the fund balance to weather the federal cuts,” Shannon said. “We’d just have to downsize our programming to reflect those cuts. A lot of our Title 1 funds are used for tutors. We’d obviously have less money for tutors.” She said the school board can’t realistically offset the cuts by pulling from its reserves “because we’re using about $2 million of our fund balance this year because of state cuts. Our (local education agency) reduction went up last year, and it’s expected to go up again next year.”Seniors to lose fundingAccording to the White House, North Carolina will lose about $1.54 million in funds that provide meals to seniors in the next seven months alone (the federal fiscal year ends in September).“We fully anticipate there will be funding lost both this year and next,” said Joe Johnson, finance officer for the Council on Aging of Henderson County. “I’ve heard everything from 1 percent to 25 percent. It’s all over the place, which compounds the problem. Cuts are one thing, but when you don’t know how deep they’ll go, it’s almost worse.”The Council on Aging received about $300,000 in federal block grant monies this year, 71 percent of which funds Meals on Wheels, a program serving 215 homebound seniors each day in the county. The rest goes to serve meals to the elderly at the Sammy Williams Center on North Justice Street, a public-private partnership that allows seniors to live independently in their homes and a referral service for seniors.Johnson said it’s hard to gauge how the agency will react to the cuts, since specifics are not known yet. But there are really only two options, he said: asking the local community to fill the gaps left by sequestration, or prioritizing who will receive services and who will go on a waiting list until funding is restored.“It’s a triage thing,” he said. “Figuring out what that hit is going to be and doing whatever it takes to protect the most vulnerable and frail. We operate on a bare-bones budget around here. There’s no secret pot of money to make up for lost funding. We’ll just have to adjust and do the best we can with the resources we have.”Public health effects unknownThe White House outlined several ways in which sequestration will affect public health in North Carolina. Its report said the state will lose $911,000 to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats, including infectious diseases and natural disasters. It also will lose about $2 million in grants to prevent and treat substance abuse, plus another $341,000 for HIV testing.But the impact of cuts on Henderson County’s Department of Public Health, if any, is still unclear, said Director Tom Bridges. He said federal funds flow into a number of programs, including a regional effort to improve physical activity and reduce obesity; communicable disease control; and the Women, Infants and Children program, which supplements nutrition for low-income moms and children under 5.“We know there is the possibility that our WIC program — we may have to cut back on some of the caseload we serve,” said Bridges. But he added the department will not make any abrupt changes in WIC or any other program until they know the extent of the cuts, should they materialize.“In the past, they had a situation where they reduced caseload and it became a complicated thing to get things reinstated,” he explained. “In fact, we wound up giving money back to the feds later that could’ve been provided to people. So what they’re doing is waiting and seeing, rather than being reactionary.”Bridges said he’s sure environmental health inspections of restaurants, hotels, summer camps, day care centers and nursing homes will continue unabated, since they’re covered by county funds. Other than that, not much is certain, he said, except for the fact that impacts of sequestration won’t be obvious to clients for some time.“There may be cuts, but they won’t be realized immediately,” Bridges said. “It’s sort of like a big ship. To turn the ship, you move the rudder, but it takes a while for the ship to alter its course. With something as huge as the federal government, it will take time to see the results.”Unemployed may have to do withoutNorth Carolina will lose about $83,000 in funding by September for job search assistance, referral and placement, the White House said, affecting roughly 15,100 people. But a spokesman for the N.C. Employment Security Commission said it’s too early to say what impact sequestration may or may not have on unemployed citizens.“There’s the potential that those who are on the federal extension could get a cut in benefits, but until we get guidance from the (U.S.) Dept. of Labor, we don’t know if that’s an issue,” said Larry Parker, acting director of public relations for NCESC, referring to those whose jobless benefits have run out and who qualify for emergency unemployment compensation from the feds for up to 47 weeks.Marilyn Williams, manager of the Hendersonville’s ESC office, said she doesn’t foresee any problems providing locally unemployed individuals with job search assistance, even in the event cuts do occur. National parks take a hitThe Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock is expected to lose about $62,000 from sequestration, resulting in fewer seasonal rangers to provide tours and guide visitors this year, according to National Park Service officials. An NPS report released this week showed the Sandburg home generated $4.75 million in local spending in 2011, creating 70 jobs with a total payroll of $1.8 million. The Blue Ridge Parkway will have to cut 21 seasonal interpretative ranger positions and close half of its 14 visitors centers, according to an NPS memo leaked by the Coalition of NPS Retirees. The move will affect half a million parkway visitors, who will have to travel 80 miles between open visitor facilities.In 2011, the parkway generated $340 million in visitor spending, the NPS report said, producing 4,379 jobs with a combined income of $73.5 million. With 15.3 million visitors a year, the linear park is the nation’s most popular NPS unit.Reach Axtell at (828) 694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridge.now.